I Get Lied to All the Time: Navigating Entrepreneurial Relationships & the Mixed Messages of Innovation

By Andrew Lenti / Managing Director at TOPP Tactical Intelligence Ltd

Introduction

This month eight years ago, as I was about to take the plunge into entrepreneurship, a wise trusted mentor offered a candid piece of advice: 'Don't become an asshole,' he said.

Back then, I chuckled, failing to grasp the weight of those words. Fast-forward to today, and the depth of that guidance is strikingly clear.

Little did I know eight years ago that as a decision-making partner of a globally-focused software-as-a-service business, you become the daily target for high-risk people with an insatiable appetite for both your time to 'pick your brain,' and your bank account to pay their bills.

The promises that come your way, though grandiose, often yield a laughable and pathetic return on investment after you have dedicated yourself and the effort of your team.

While there are undoubtedly moments of immense satisfaction and accomplishment when venturing into new markets and effecting positive change, they often come at a steep cost and can be overshadowed by the constant disappointment of relationships both personal and professional that go sour.

From the sales partners who constantly waste your time with their never-ending stream of excuses as to why they didn't follow through on their commitments to the client prospect who continues to contact you for long, pre-contractual workshops only to 'kick the can forward' another 3 months.

To say the least, you will need thick skin and patience to push forward in key moments and know when to fold your losing hands.

If you have a special knack at managing people, perhaps with luck, as an entrepreneur, you will not become an as*hole. But beware my friends, from what I have seen in the past eight years, increased scepticism towards the human race is inevitable.

In this article, I've outlined five primary types of relationships every entrepreneur encounters along with the tell-tale signs you should be on the lookout for.

No frills, no sugar-coating – here are the key types of deceit and red flags to be mindful of when selecting your entrepreneurial collaborations.

Navigating the Ineffective Collaborations of Entrepreneurship

Dud & Douchey Sales Partners

These come in the form of individuals who already have a valid income source or a spouse who is a high income earner in a big corporation allowing them to 'play entrepreneur' for some time.

They are in it for sport and for fun and with or without you, the bread will still be plentiful on their table. This piece is very important for you to recognise so that you are not shocked when they don't show up to an important client meeting because they preferred to participate in a webinar provided by their favourite book club where they are a featured guest speaker.

They come off enthusiastic and ambitious to get started but show their true colours the moment they are expected to roll up their sleaves and do some heavy-lifting real work that wasn't expected. In that moment they often fall off of the radar giving you only excuses and lip service of their unavailability.

Equally dangerous to your bottom line are the sinking ship businesses on shoe string marketing budgets claiming to have supernatural powers in business development. They come promising boundless opportunities into their rich client network which you will only find out later is not so rich.

They make promises to grow income at hockey stick growth rates by promoting your company and product to expand their client base only to discover later that their sales skills are seriously lacking.

More often than not, these types of partners end up becoming costly relationships as they continuously fail to close deals due to lack of preparation and and bring you down with them. They find constant problems with the solutions you propose and excuses to stall instead of move forward with what was originally agreed when you started your collaboration.

These type of partners take on more than they can handle leaving you disappointed as well as physically & mentally consumed.

Frustratingly, they often resort to the 'bait-and-switch' tactic claiming they require further training from you and audaciously request access to your hard-earned client base stating they want to meet your clients before they start selling to theirs (HUGE RED FLAG ALERT).

When it is all over, it becomes apparent that their ability to step outside of their comfort zone and focus on challenging tasks is very limited or entirely absent whatsoever.

They were out of their league working with you in the first place and you fell for it. Make sure it doesn't happen again!

Price Pirate Vendors

Then come the vendors, masters of the price hike sleight-of-hand. They slyly inflate costs each year making it appear as if you should have known all along it was coming.

These are IT development partners, sticky software platforms, marketing partners, web designers, SEO experts and anyone who is ready to provide you with a service that they know you need/want to outsource.

What usually happens is that they give you a very discounted price quote on a piece of work and then once you are knee-deep into it, all kinds of unexpected costs arise.

It's almost an art form the way they make you believe that these unforeseen expenses were somehow your fault for not knowing beforehand. It's a constant dance of financial jiu-jitsu leaving you in a state of constant vigilance.

It goes without saying that the best way to approach these type of collaborations is to do deep research on the service that they will be providing you so you can ask the right questions before making any contracts.

As time passes, the best way to keep prices down and quality up is to actively track the time spent and number of missed deliveries so you can then effectively dispute any unfair invoices.

(For more on our secrets on managing vendor relationships, read 'How to have Healthy, Meaningful Disputes with your IT Vendor' )

Gimmick Gurus & Lifetime Consultants

Adding to the mix are the ever-persistent consultants, mentors, and coaches who insist that you desperately need their guidance, despite having never personally experienced what you're pursuing.

Among them, you'll encounter the self-proclaimed experts who are nothing more than 'lifetime consultants,' individuals whose leadership & operational experience rarely extends beyond a 1-year stint in a large company.

Yet, armed with published books and glossy personal websites, they confidently declare themselves as possessors of the keys to all your leadership, marketing and branding needs.

If you're not careful, your calendar will quickly fill up with their one-on-one sessions all leading towards a pitch for something you probably don't need. And even if you did, it would likely be be more appropriate to hire someone with far more practical experience.

Yes Men Clients

Ah, the clients! Those who approach you with big projects painting a rosy picture of collaboration. But reality often hits hard as you find yourself entangled in their bureaucratic web of confusion and uncertainty.

Understaffed and lacking focus, their flavour-of-the-month management style stretches projects beyond recognition and when they realise that they bit off more than they could chew, they will break their contract with you.

If you are lucky, they will do it quickly but unfortunately it is more likely they will take a cowardly approach and not be transparent about their intentions. Instead of breaking ties quickly and saving you time, they will engineer a situation that will force you to spend excessive time in cold, cryptic, e-mails which will end up becoming the foundation of a long-term dispute.

Working with indecisive clients, you become the unwitting victims of their inefficiencies trying to continuously salvage what's left of their original vision. Eventually, it will all end but only after a slow, agonising fade-out relationship costing your team time and morale.

(More on this in 'Standing on the Shoulders of Yes Men ', our memoir of losing a big client in year two of a five-year contract)

Bad Egg Employees

And then there are the staff members, the heart and soul of any business. They are the bedrock of your success and treating them with respect and appreciation is critical.

In today's virtual world, 'bad egg' employees are constantly finding new ways to work less and get away with it. Managing them from a distance makes it difficult to understand what is really going on behind the scenes in situations of quality loss.

Tracking hours can become a Herculean task with disputes sometimes erupting on a weekly basis.

Excessive, unplanned absences can also wreak havoc on your reputation leaving you to play the role of mediator between clients and absent employees.

From our experience, the hours dedicated to listening to creative excuses for absences and tardiness could fill volumes and when the reason given is related family and illness, staying silent and giving the benefit of the doubt is often the only option.

Finally, let's not forget the technological woes. Poor connectivity with internet, phones and laptops are a common refrain in the age of remote work and will cost you precious time. The excuses a 'bad egg employee' will give for not being connected when you need them most will flow like a river each one more imaginative than the last. It's almost impressive how a malfunctioning laptop can spawn such creativity while slowing your business down so much.

(For more on this topic in 'Transform Managers into Leaders with 3 KPIs' )

In Closing

So, fellow entrepreneurs, intrapreneurs and anyone directly responsible for your company's budget, let this be a rallying cry!

In the midst of these challenges, we find the fire that forges our resilience.

The lies, the bureaucracy, the inflated costs, the technological mishaps—each one a testament to our tenacity and determination.

What doesn't kill you, will make you stronger but it may come at the price of becoming an 'as*hole' in the process if you weren't one to start.

Embrace the chaos, for it is the foundation in which true entrepreneurship is built and remember, for every unfulfilled commitment, there's an opportunity to rise above, to adapt, and to thrive.

Are you considering making the dive into entrepreneurship? Download our 'Consulting in 2023' whitepaper now. (Click image below)